1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FAUMER. 



to subtract from the soil and the atmosphere, those 

 injurious elements which might otherwise abound 

 to a fatal excess ? 



After the creation the Deity surveyed the works 

 of his hands, and pronounced upon them a bene- 

 diction, which was confined to no particular part, 

 but extended over all things, and all things are still 

 good, because that benediction has never been re- 

 moved. 



For the New England Farmer. 



CTJLTURE OF THE CSANBSRRY. 



We cannot understand why it is that so little at- 

 tention is paid to the growing of this fruit — when 

 it can be done with such entire certainty of success 

 — both on wet meadows and on upland. That 

 cranberries will grow on wet meadows is ajiparent, 

 •wherever meadows are found. That they can be 

 made to grow advantageously upon upland, is ap- 

 parent from facts stated by Rev. C. C. Sewall, in 

 his report on this subject, contained in the "Trans- 

 actions of the Norfolk Society," recently published. 

 I commend the perusal of the entire article to all 

 lovers of good cranberries and of profitable culture ; 

 I have seen some of the fields mentioned and can 

 affirm the truth of what is said. 



I would speak particularly of the superiority of 

 those berries grown on upland, to those grown on 

 wet meadow. In substance and flavor, I have found 

 the u])land grown berry worth at least fifty per 

 cent, the most; from one to three bushels can be 

 grown to the square rod of land. Such a crop, at 

 $4 per bushel, which they will readily command, 

 is equal to any produce that can be grown. The 

 productive power of the plant is not limited to one 

 year; I have known successive crops for four years, 

 constantly improving. 



The cranberry needs no other fertilizer, than 

 pure air, clear water and clean culture — always 

 clearing away all intruding substances. Essex. 



SEED WHEAT. 



There are a great many methods of preparing 

 seed wheat for sowing, but the following is perhaps 

 the best, as the grain may remain in the solution 

 several weeks, if necessary, without any detriment 

 to its germinating powers. 



"Wash the grain thoroughly, rubbing it hard, 

 and changing the water several times. Then make 

 a strong pickle by dissolving nearly or quite as 

 much salt • in water as you can. Some say make 

 the pickle strong enough to bear up an e^^ or po- 

 tato. Put the wheat into the pickle ; and the oats, 

 if any, and the light kernels of wheat, will swim, 

 and must be taken off. Let the wheat remain 

 twjnty-four hours or longer in the pickle, then turn 

 ofi" the water, and add slaked lime to the wheat 

 till it is dry enough to sow. Some use strong wood 

 ashes instead of Ume." 



S.W. Cole, Esq., formerly editor of the Yankee. 

 Farmer, in some remarks corroborative of the ef- 

 ficacy of this method, says : 



"When a boy, we assisted in sowing some wheat 

 prepared as above ; there was not enough to finish 



the piece, and we got a few quarts more from the 

 same cask, which was sowed on one corner of the 

 piece without preparation. When the grain was 

 growing, we frequently examined it to see whether 

 there was any ditference on account of the seed. 

 When the grain was ripe, scarcely a smutty head 

 could be found on that from the prepared seed ; 

 while that which was sowed without preparation, 

 produced a large quantity of smut. It was percep- 

 tible at some distance, and the line between the 

 two could be distinctly traced. On the one kind, 

 there was not more than one smutty head in five 

 hundred, while one-fourth or one-third of the other 

 was smutty." 



It has generally been supposed that a protracted 

 immersion in salt and water would prove fatal to 

 the wheat ; but this, it seems, is a merely suppositi- 

 tious conclusion, as Mr. Cole assures us in the arti- 

 cle from which the foregoing is extracted, that he 

 has known instances when wheat has been soaked 

 fourteen days in strong salt water, and on being 

 sowed grew well. He also mentions another case, 

 which we give in his own words. 



"Several bushels of wheat were soaked in water 

 in which there was as much salt as would dissolve ; 

 and as there came a storm and overflowed the in- 

 tervale on which the wheat was to be sowed, it re- 

 mained fourteen days in the pickle; then the pickle 

 was drained off", and the wheat remained in a wet 

 state seven days longer, making twenty-one days 

 that it was exposed to the action of the pickle. It 

 was then thought to be too late to sow the wheat, 

 ^o it was dried and saved till the next spring, then 

 sowed, and it grew well." 



The writer concludes by saying : 



"There is no doubt that the grain may be kept 

 in a better condition in a strong than in a weak 

 pickle, as it will neither vegetate nor decay in a 

 strong pickle." 



The Right Way to Read. — When the late 

 Jeremiah Evarts was in the sixth year of his age, 

 he came to his father, and asked him for a new 

 book. His father asked him if the last book he 

 had given him was worn out. "O, no sir," said 

 Jeremiah, "but I have read all the sense out of it." 

 He meant to say that he had read it thoroughly, 

 and had made himself master of the ideas it con- 

 tained. 



This is the right way to read ; in that way, Jere- 

 miah Evarts made great improvement, and became 

 one of the wisest and most useful men our country 

 has produced. He never took a book and allowed 

 his eye to rest on the page, while his thoughts were 

 wandering from one thing to another, so as only 

 now and then to get an idea of what was written. 

 He never took up a book for the sake of passing 

 away time. He took the advice of those who were 

 wiser than he, and read only good books, and he 

 read "all the sense out of them." 



H^F^The production of maple sugar, this year, 

 will reach full seventy million pounds, worth nearly 

 twelve million dollars ; the season has been pecu- 

 liarly favorable for the production, and Vermont ex- 

 pects to make enough to supply her whole demand 

 for this year. 



